97 
Mr. Wilde exhibited two electro-motor machines for 
illustrating the transmission of mechanical power by means 
of electricity. He remarked that soon after the discovery 
of electro-magnetism numerous attempts were made to turn 
the principle to account for the production of motive power. 
It was soon found, however, from experiments made by 
Joule and others, that the expense of motive power derived 
from the voltaic battery was so great as to render its use as 
a substitute for the steam engine quite impracticable, and 
the subsequent production by himself and others of power- 
ful electric currents by the reverse action of steam power 
and electro-magnetism, had served to confirm the convictions 
previously formed as to the futility of all attempts to obtain 
motive power economically from voltaic electricity in sub- 
stitution of the power derived from steam. Fallacies re- 
specting the economic production of electro-motive power 
were nevertheless more prevalent than might commonly be 
supposed, as the records of the Patent Office continually 
showed; and a notable instance was brought before this 
Society a few years since by an eminent telegraph inventor 
who endeavoured to prove that the coal consumed in fur- 
nishing the power required in Manchester factories would 
be more economically employed in smelting zinc to be used 
in voltaic batteries for the production of motive power than 
in the generation of steam for the same purpose. 
While the progress of electrical science had proved most 
clearly that electricity could not compete successfully with 
steam in point of economy, recent experiments had shown 
that it might, in some cases, be utilised as a transmitter of 
motive power to points at a considerable distance from the 
prime mover. 
There were no doubt many circumstances in which the 
method might be used with advantage, but as the trans- 
mission of mechanical power by electricity was attended by 
a considerable loss of the original power employed, its appli- 
